Wednesday, November 24, 2004

This is the text of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa's statement: "Thiru Karunanidhi has created a new Olympic record of sorts in somersaults with his total volte-face on the arrest of Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal by the Tamil Nadu police on 11.11.2004, and his statement on the encounter in which the dreaded forest brigand Veerappan was eliminated by the Tamil Nadu police on 18.10.2004.
....

Whenever I hear of 'Dravidians' I am reminded of their sainted leader EV Ramaswamy Naicker. He is known, among his other epithets, as 'Vaikom Veerar', meaning the 'hero of Vaikom'. This refers to the Vaikom Satyagraha in 1924 in Kerala. This was to demand the right for 'lower caste' people to use the public paths around the Vaikom Mahadeva temple. This was the seminal struggle that led to the 1936 Temple Entry Proclamation that opened all temples in Travancore to all Hindus.

The implication is that Naicker was one of the heros of the Vaikom Satyagraha, if not the main man.

However, in point of fact, he came, he saw, and he was ignored. Nobody paid the slightest attention to Naicker. He was a complete nobody as far as the Vaikom Satyagraha is concerned.

Yet, according to Tamil mythmakers, he was a hero.

And how do I know this? It's because family members of mine were among the leaders of the agitation. They were the ones who were arrested, beaten up, whose bones were broken.

Naicker could be renamed 'Vaikom Visitor' or 'Vaikom Tourist' and it would be more correct.

This is a metaphor for the entire edifice of 'Dravidian' thought. It is a complete hoax, manufactured by one Bishop Caldwell.

If it is this great 'rationalist' movement, how come no 'Dravidian' hero has ever said anything against the organized religions of Islam and Christianity? And against the semi-organized religion of Marxistm? It is because 'Dravidians' are afraid of Muslims, Christians and Marxists.

'Dravidian' is like 'Piltdown Man', an enormous hoax that has fooled a lot of people. It has, however enriched many, mostly middle-caste Tamils, who now go around terrorising Dalits.

And, oh, if you are thinking the usual crap 'Dravidians' throw at me, about me being a Tamil Brahmin, forget it. I am neither Tamil nor Brahmin.

Take over Aurobindo trust, Government told

By Our Staff Reporter

PONDICHERRY, NOV. 18. The Dravida Peravai today demanded that the government take over the Aurobindo Ashram Trust and its subsidiaries....

The website www.kanchi-sathya.org is endorsed by the Kanchi Ashram and addresses the many devotees of the Acharya and the Matham. It tries to bring out the various issues and questions that the 'media' and the 'intelligentsia' -- and I use these words loosely -- do not wish to ask.

Atlanta, GA, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Even as Pakistan's leadership wasexpressing its unrestrained glee with President George W. Bush'sthumping re-election, the new Bush administration wasted no time inmaking its first big move to reward Pakistan with advanced weaponry....

As a tax paying citizen of this country, I am outraged at this latest
largesse to kashmir. I am part of the miniscule group that pay taxes
in this country and I have no say in how the money is spent. Everyday
I drive to work on roads with potholes that can swallow me whole!
fight traffic on narrow congested roads and have to drive around
stalled projects to build flyovers. Every time I travel I look at the
pathetic airports, railway stations that stink to high heaven.
Shouldnt we get something back for all the taxes we are paying?
Considering that the southern states, punjab, haryana and maharashtra
are the most productive states in the country, shouldnt we get back
some of that money to improve our conditions and infrastructure. Isnt
that our right?

This last thing (kashmir dole out) has kind of pushed me over the
edge. I want to do something about it. I think the ranks of the middle
class has swelled enough to be able to make our votes count and our
voices heard. The problem is that most of the middle class are
ignorant of these things and are apathetic.
I want to do something to raise the awareness on these issues in
people. But I dont really know how to do it. Can you suggest some
ways? point me to people who you know are doing these things?
Enough of sitting on my butt. I want to be heard!

Monday, November 22, 2004

In the wake of the Kanchi atrocity, there have been a number of statements about taking over the Kanchi Matham. Presumably this would help the UPA government fund its Don Quixote projects. Well, there are very few Hindu institutions that are not already being sucked dry by the government via Devaswom boards and so forth.

What, however, about all those Christian and Muslim entities that are untouched by the government? The Christian churches collectively are the second largest landowners in the country, second only to the government. Imagine how much money taking them over will produce! I positively drool.

The arrest of the Kanchi seer has become a reason for celebration and triumphalism for the Brahmin haters of Tamil Nadu, led by a writer of tawdry dramas, whose men tried to disrobe the actress who became Chief Minister, and who in turn arrested at midnight the writer of those tawdry dramas when she became Chief Minister. While the VHP, the RSS and the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha are dumbfounded by this event and have made sundry calls for bandhs, gheraos, and protests, the internet is abuzz with talk of “Hinduism is under attack”. Conspiracy theories abound, and I get back channel information from someone who heard from someone else about the Kanchi seer being this and that, or that it is a Marxist-Christian-Muslim plot to defeat Hinduism in India.

On Diwali, the Kanchi Shankaracharya, Jayendra Saraswathi, was arrested on charges of murder. On the next day, the title of an article in a national daily read 'Seer heads 5,000 crore empire. Another article in a leading national newspaper read, 'Of high priests and their lust for more power.' He has been variously described as high profile, influential and the seventh most powerful man in India.

The Shankaracharya is in custody, the police are on a wild evidence hunt, and the media is marauding a large cut of the spoils. The seer's high profile status has somehow been conveniently used to imply that he is a goon-wielding, power kooky tycoon. The assets of the Kanchi Math are being referred to as if they were the acharya's personal possessions, and every one of his past actions is being interpreted according to the revised image that the press has decided to give him.
...

The entire polity of Tamil Nadu except the BJP is
ranged against him. Never in the history of the state
did the DMK and the AIADMK, whose leaders never meet,
ever unite on anything as they do on this issue and
against him.

Saturday, November 20, 2004

Given the 'Hindu' newspaper's anti-Hindu bias, and the fact that N. Ram has been seen involving himself in all this, I am not sure that the webpage will have all the relevant documents or whether there is only a selection slanted in a particular way. However, for what it's worth, here is the information.

I found the following mail from a thoughtful brahmacharini quite thought-provoking. I have withheld her name below. I would only add that 'South Indian' is the wrong term, it is peculiarly 'Tamil', the oppression described below. There is other oppression of Hindus and Brahmins in other states, for instance the Marxists have utterly impoverished the Nambudiri Brahmins of Kerala. But this particular intellectually vacuous and laughable fanaticism is a Tamil specialty.

I would urge everybody to not use 'South Indian' as a synonym for 'Tamil'.

Once again, this 'Dravidian' mythology is complete nonsense manufactured by one Bishop Caldwell. It has been highly useful for certain Tamil politicians such as EV Ramaswamy Naicker, Annadurai, Karunanidhi and so forth and their hangers-on.

Rajeev

----------

In view of the current events, the arrest and harassment of Sri Jayendra
Saraswati Swamigal, I felt a need to bring out the background of South
Indian politics for many people who are not aware of it. I am quoting a
passage from Michel Danino's book, "The Invasion That Never Was".

Respectfully,

(name withheld)

21 November 2004

Starting on page 34:

... "the "invasionist" syndrome used depths upon depths of tangled
distortion to convince Indians that this new invasion of "British
Aryans" was meant to finally save them from the aberrations that had
stemmed from the first invasion!

"Unfortunately, many of the wounds the Aryan invasion theory inflicted
on Indian society are still painfully open today, nurtured as they have
been by missionaries, Marxist historians, and politicians, who together
have made sure that divisions between castes have sharpened rather than
subsided-for the simple reason that without such divisions they would
all be out of business. A typical example of this short-sighted strategy
is the common identification of Dalits with "non-Aryans" and the use of
the word 'adivasi' (i.e., "original inhabitant" or aboriginal) to depict
the tribals, thus trying to put a stamp of evidence on the
"colonization" and "Aryanization" of India by the higher castes: for if
the former are aboriginals, what are the latter? Yet, as we will see,
the so-called Adivasis are no more "adi" than Brahmins or any other
higher castes.

Aryan-Dravidian Divide

"Another instance can be found in South Indian politics, where a
frequently heard refrain has been that the Dravidians came to India long
before the "Aryan invaders," whose Brahmin descendants have sought to
"impose their culture on all non-Aryans" and should therefore be
resisted.

"The following observation by a noted South Indian writer and academic
is a painful index of how deep those divisive doctrines have penetrated:
"Again and again Tamil has had, during its long history, to stand the
impact of alien influences and cultures, Sanskrit, Persian and Urdu,
French and English, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam and Christianity-these in
successive or concurrent waves have threatened to overrun the Tamil
language or destroy the character of Tamil culture. But Tamil has always
managed to assimilate the foreign matter..." Sanskrit, Buddhism or
Jainism are "foreign" to Tamil culture!! We may contrast this
astonishing statement with Swami Vivekananda: "The South had been the
repository of Vedic learning." ... many sound scholars have argued that
South Indian languages are deeply related to Sanskrit, and neither Tamil
tradition nor archaeology show any North-South or Aryan-Dravidian
conflict on the cultural level.

"Yet, a few years ago a "Dravidian" politician urged Tamilians to impose
a "social boycott of Brahmins," whom he threatened with "an intensive
movement to quit the State.""

It is hard to believe the UPA government was completely innocent, as it maintains. Whatever Jayalalitha's and Karunanidhi's role in the event, it is difficult to imagine anyone taking a drastic step without informing Shivraj Patil, the Home Minister. For instance, if there were a serious law-and-order problem arising from the arrest, then it would be an excuse/reason to immediately bring down the Jayalalitha government and impose central rule under article 356, and Jayalalitha is well aware of this. Karunanidhi, of course, enjoys considerable clout at the center, comparable to what Chandrababu Naidu enjoyed with the NDA government.

Arjun Singh, Prime Minister-in-waiting and rabidly anti-Hindu, has finished most of his re-toxifying work, and so has had a little time on his hands. He may had input into this, too.

A STAFF REPORTER | Tuesday, November 16, 2004 11:48:14 IST
Counsel for arrested Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati, the
noted constitutional expert Ram Jethmalani, said that the case against
the seer was false and fabricated and motivated by the age old
anti-Brahmin agenda of the Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu.
"According to me, the seer has been unfairly implicated in a false
case. This has been proved by the fact that the police are now trying
to build up the case by collecting all sorts of evidence," Jethmalani
said. He referred to the alleged telephonic conversation which the
police claimed to have obtained to prove the pontiff's involvement in
the murder case. "They can do whatever they like. But the fact remains
that my client is innocent," said Jethmalani, whose appearance as the
Sankara-charya's defence caught the prosecution by surprise. Speaking
to this newspaper last night, Jethmalani said that the reason why the
seer was dragged into the murder case was the inherent anti-Brahmin
stand of the main two Dravidian parties, the DMK and AIADMK. "This is
what the seer said," Jethmalani claimed. "Both are anti-Brahmin in
their stand. Any godman is a threat to them," he added, hinting at the
possible political gains which both parties are aiming to make during
the coming assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.
Jethmalani feared the incident has already taken a serious caste turn
and stirred "the perennial conflict between the Shaivites and
Vaisnavites sects". He said he had not met the Sankaracharya after his
arrest, but his juniors were in touch with the seer.

This was forwarded to me. I intend to post on this blog other information and comments I receive regarding the Kanchi atrocity.

This blog has an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed, so it is ready for syndication in case you know how to set it up to send you automatic alerts when new blog posts appear. I am using the Firefox browser, and in that all you have to do is to click on the little orange broadcast icon in the bottom right-hand corner to add an automatic bookmark to this blog.

You are welcome to send me at rajeev.srinivasan@gmail.com new information about the Kanchi atrocity. Those that I find credible I will post here.

Here is the Statement issued on behalf of the Hindu Dharma Acharya
Sabha. Knowing our media one has to wonder how many will publish it. I
am therefore circulating this with the following requests:

1. Let this be put on the Net. I have no proficiency or facility to do
it.

2. Religious leaders and opinion builders may be requested to speak up
in public immediately.

The point to emphasise is the shabby and vindictive manner in which law
enforcement agency has behaved. The Case could have been registered and
investigated otherwise also without humiliating and inconveniencing the
Acharya in this manner. One can not escape the conclusion that vested
/inimical intertests have been and are active behind the scenes to hurt
the back bone as it were of Hindu morale and sentiments. This action may
have been intended as a warning to anyone who talks against conversion
etc. or in favour of the Hindu Society.

R.Venkatanarayanan
-----------------------
"The Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha, the Apex Body of Hindu Acharyas and
Peetathipathis from all over India and which represents the unified
voice of the Hindu Society, notes with consternation and deep regret
the direction of events that have culminated in the arrest and
detention of the highly respected Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kama Koti
Pitham, Sri Jayendra Saraswati Swamigal.The entire Hindu Society feels
overwhelmed with sadness and shock at the mode of action that has been
visited upon the great Peetathipathi. Surely requirements of law and
justice, if any, could have been met by a more considerate and benign
approach by the law enforcement agencies, keeping in view the very
great reverence that the Kanchi Peetathipathi commands among the vast
mass of Hindus of the country. It is curious that their sacred
sentiments have been treated with such little consideration. The
Acharya Sabha calls for impartial and quick investigation that is fully
credible in the eye of the public and hopes that forces which are well
known to be inimical to the concerns and legitimate interests of Hindus
in general and their religious leadership in particular, will not be
allowed to subvert impartial enquiry and application of law".

The Shankaracharya of Kanchi, Swami Jayendra
Saraswati, broke a critical stalemate in the current
controversy over the merits of the Tamil Nadu ban on
conversions by force, fraud or inducement, by offering
worship at a Dalit-run temple in Madurai (The Hindu,
12 Nov. 2002). The Veerakali Amman temple, which
serves the religious needs of eighteen villages and
has a Dalit priest, lies in the Melur region where 250
Hindus were converted en masse by a Canadian priest of
the Seventh Day Adventists on 25 August 2002.
Previously, about fifteen hundred Hindus were
converted in the neighbouring areas in January 2001.
By giving the villagers an unexpected darshan, the
Shankaracharya gracefully shattered several myths and
assumptions about inequality and divisiveness in Hindu
society.

Speaking with his legendary forthrightness, the seer
told the gathering what many of us have always known,
namely, that Hindu dharma does not promote or envision
discrimination and regards people of all sections of
society as equals. He rightly stressed that Hindus
have an age-long tradition of living amicably as a
"family", as brothers and sisters. Candidly accepting
that there are always differences in society, he
advised the people not to foster discrimination on
this count, as unity has ever been the hallmark of the
dharma.

The Shankaracharya has truly led by example, with a
view to blunting the criticism of evangelizing faiths
that social discrimination compels Dalits to embrace
other faiths. Hitherto, Hindus have been rebutting
the argument by pointing out that the condition of
former Dalits does not improve upon leaving the mother
faith, and that persisting discrimination in the new
faiths has led Christian and Muslim groups to demand
the extension of reservation benefits to ex-Dalits in
their fold.

Swami Jayendra Saraswati, however, has risen above
this cacophony to remind us that we cannot seek refuge
in such specious arguments, and that it is our duty to
uphold the principle of the brotherhood of man in our
own lives. It is now enjoined upon each one of us to
be worthy followers of a worthy leader. Tamil society
in particular must rise to the occasion and accord the
Dalits the personal dignity they crave for; a
beginning must be made by doing away with the
degrading two-glass system at village dhabas. In this
regard, it may be worth noting that the Swamiji's
choice of temple was singularly apt. The Veerakali
Amman temple attracts devotees from all castes and is
also a locally renowned symbol of communal harmony as
Muslims regularly join the celebrations of its annual
festival in January.

What is most exciting about this new call from the
bastions of the mainstream tradition is that it cannot
be set aside lightly as a maverick or fringe movement.
Swami Jayendra Saraswati followed up the Madurai
initiative at Tirunelveli by categorically asserting
that Dalits have the right to enter any temple across
the State, individually, and offer prayers. This may
not make sense to many urban citizens. But what it
means is that at many important temples, Dalits from
outside the region do enter anonymously along with
other pilgrims, but local Dalits who might be
recognized would be barred or beaten for entering the
precincts.

Now an orthodox Hindu leader with unparalleled
knowledge of the shastras has ruled that "appropriate
action" would be taken against those trying to prevent
a Harijan from entering a temple. And as the cosmic
vision of the Hindus does not envisage the shallow
separation of religion and the public sphere, as
Mahatma Gandhi had intuitively understood, the
Shankaracharya has rightly asserted that religious
leaders must increasingly participate in public life
to foster a social renaissance.

Given the encouraging signs emanating from different
parts of the country, it would appear that a major
paradigm shift is in the making. Later this month,
Hindu religious leaders are slated to meet at
Kottakkal in Malappuram district, Kerala, to discuss
whether temples should open their doors to all
visitors, irrespective of religion (The Hindustan
Times, 12 Nov. 2002). Historically, there are
legitimate reasons for both the imposition of the ban,
and socially, there are valid reasons for its
revocation. A mature look at both sides of the coin
would go a long way to ensure community amity and
national harmony.

Those who contend that conversions are not an assault
upon the country's native faith and living
civilization would do well to recollect that Hindu
dharma has suffered grievously for several centuries,
and its temples have been the special foci of
sustained assault and injury. Simply put, this is the
reason for the self-protective ban on the entry of
non-believers into temple precincts. Left historian
Sanjay Subramaniam has recorded the fortuitous escape
of the famed Tirupathi shrine from annihilation at the
hands of the Portuguese. Can one imagine south India
without Tirupathi? North India was home to several
such Tirupathis; today it has only the Ganga. Yet, the
priests of Tirupathi have welcomed all devotees
provided only that they declare faith in Sri
Venkatesvara; that is why it rankles to this day that
Signora Sonia Gandhi should so arrogantly refuse this
courtesy at such a holy shrine.

Nonetheless, much water has flown under the bridge,
and communities have grown to the point that many
individuals wish to stake claim to a larger Indic
heritage. Hindu tradition is by definition inclusivist
rather than exclusionary, hence deference to the
sentiments of non-Hindu devotees would be highly
appropriate. The present move is the result of the
hurt felt by many at a perceived injustice to
celebrated singer K.J. Yesudas, a great bhakta of
Guruvayurappan, who has been denied temple entry on
account of being born in a Christian family. The poet
Yusufali Kecherry, who has written some of the best
songs in honour of Lord Krishna, has also been
excluded from Guruvayur because of his Muslim origins.

This seemingly innocuous issue came to the forefront a
couple of years ago when the Guruvayur Temple
performed a purificatory rite after the wedding of the
son of Congress leader Vyalar Ravi. The explanation
offered was that Mr. Ravi's wife was not a Hindu. But
the incident proved unacceptable to the Hindu
conscience and sparked off the present reformation
drive. Much can be expected from the conclave as the
chief of the Namboodiri sect has taken the lead in the
matter and major temples and social organizations are
expected to attend the meet. It seems reasonable to
extend freedom of entry to all devotees (or for that
matter even heritage tourists from other faiths)
provided that they show proper respect to temple
traditions and do not defile their sanctity. And it
goes without saying that this generosity must extend
to less privileged groups within the Hindu fold.

Change is already in the air. In strife-torn Bihar,
birthplace of Lord Mahavira, the apostle of
non-violence, authorities of Patna's famous Mahavira
temple have decided to increase the number of Dalit
priests after a successful experiment launched nine
years ago. A former untouchable, Suryavanshi Das, was
recruited as a priest and has been successfully
performing the traditional rituals along with the
Brahmin priests. His public acceptance is absolute.
The temple administration actively promotes equality
among human beings and maintains links with the
Ramanandi community which practiced non-discrimination
seven centuries ago.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Where is the international response to the arrest of the Kanchi Acharya?

The USCIRF did not stir a little finger. This merely supports the contention that it is not meant for religious freedom per se, but for the advancement of Christian fundamentalism.

The BBC called the Acharya a 'cleric'. Strictly speaking, this is true: a cleric is a member of a religious order. But I have never heard them call the Pope a cleric. It is always 'the pontiff' or 'the pope'. Why? I suggest that we should all call the Pope a 'cleric' from now on.

The law usually considers an accused "innocent until proven guilty". However, in the case of Hindus -- and Hindus alone -- in India, it appears that the accused is "guilty until proven innocent". This is what has happened in the case of the Kanchi Acharya, and there are innumerable other cases.

In the case of others, it is "innocent even after proven guilty". For instance, there is Teesta Setalvad, who had a website with a mangled map of India (with all of Jammu and Kashmir given to Pakistan). This website was up for several years. Showing an incorrect map of India is a serious offense in India, a non-bailable, cognizable offense. However, even after it had been demonstrated that Setalvad had this on her website, no charges were pressed against her.

This merely proves that if you are a non-Hindu, you are always innocent. By definition.

This was forwarded to me by Reader Manoj, and I think it makes a valid point. The upliftment of Dalits and other backward communities generally takes the wind out of the sails of the missionaries as well as of the Marxists who claim Hindus do nothing for the lower castes. Incidentally, Marxists do nothing for lower castes, either. This is why Marxists say nothing about the genocide of Hindus in Bangladesh, for most of the Bangladeshis being attacked are lower caste people.

Rajeev

=============

Reading the following news item one can very well imagine why Swami
Jayendra Saraswati of Kanchi Kamakothi Peetham, is being harassed and
persecuted:

It is so heartening to see Hindu religious leaders speaking out and
taking steps for the preservation of Dharma in Bharat. Hindu Dharma
Acharya Sabha is providing a much needed platform for Hindu voice.
Ved Chaudhary

Build Temples in Dalit Colonies
News Report (Source: HPI)

HYDERABAD, INDIA, November 7, 2004: Swami Jayendra Saraswati of Kanchi
Kamakothi Peetham has asked for the construction of more temples in
Dalit ("untouchable") colonies to promote Hindu dharma. He said this
while taking part in a meeting on governance of temples at the
Endowments Commissionerate on Sunday. A number of Hindu seers took part
in the meet organized by the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha. The Kanchi
seer, emphasizing the need to spread Hindu culture among Dalits, said
that small get-togethers should be held in temples in Dalit colonies
regularly to erase differences between various communities.
Village-level committees should be set up to supervise the
administration of such temples and the government should extend
monetary help, he said. The Hindu religion was under threat because of
the conversions which took place since Independence, said the Kanchi
seer. "We cannot expect those who have gone away to come back," he
said. "But we have to take measures to stop further degeneration."

In other proceedings at the meeting, Nrusimha Bharati Swamy of
Pushpagiri Peetham opposed government control in managing temples.
Pejawar Swamy of Pejawar Mutt in Karnataka also suggested that the
government should not interfere in the affairs of Peethams. Acharya
Sabha convenor, Dayananda Saraswati, and Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, who sent
a message, also demanded that the government withdraw from temples
administration.
--

Monday, November 15, 2004

Here is some advice for the UPA government and the media in India on
how best to destroy Hinduism. Not that they need the advice, they have
done quite well on their own:

· On the holiest night in the Hindu calendar, Diwali, the night when
good triumphs over evil, arrest the most visible, revered, and
respectable Hindu religious leader in the country on murder charges
· Announce a troop withdrawal from J&K at the same time that yet
another murderous terrorist attack on a CRP camp is going on
http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/nov/11pm.htm
· Have one of your central cabinet ministers announce at a Christian
fundamentalists' meet that he is 'ashamed to have been born a Hindu'
· Take over Hindu shrines like the Shirdi Ashram, temples in Uttar
Pradesh; target the Tirupati temple and cause problems there over the
demolition of the 1,000-pillar hall
· Arrest a Hindu sanyasini because she had raised the Indian flag
· The media should continue to attack Hinduism while never uttering a
word against the damage being done to it by the State. On the day
after the arrest of the Sankaracharya, instead of shock and disbelief,
the Indian media should be full of teary-eyed hagiographies of Yasser
Arafat, a dubious statesman at best

In contrast, here is what happens with respect to other faiths:
· In Kerala, Muslim League Minister Kunjalikutty, accused of what is
probably statutory rape (sex with a minor girl), refuses to step down.
A mob of Muslims attacks media people just because an interview with
the girl was broadcast
· In Hyderabad, some low-level maulana is arrested, and a Muslim mob
riots and attacks the police station to try and release him

And people still ask me how Hindus are oppressed in India. If even a
single Muslim or Christian or Marxist is arrested, the cry goes up:
"Islam in danger!", "Secularism in danger!" or something along those
lines. But this doesn't apply to Hinduism, clearly.

How would Catholic Christians like it if on Christmas night the Pope
were arrested for murder? The arrest of the venerable Sri Jayendra
Saraswati, Sankaracharya on Kanchi, on Diwali night, is the equivalent
of that http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/nov/11tn.htm . Yet, I don't see
masses of Hindus out there rioting to get the Sankaracharya released.
This, I personally believe, is a character flaw on the part of Hindus.
They should be out there rioting, then their religion would not be in
danger all the time. The sentiments of millions of devout Hindus are
being trampled upon because the UPA government knows Hindus will not
react violently.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Bush White House 'celebrated'
Diwali. Indian-Americans, who had contributed significant amounts to
the Bush campaign, were disappointed because neither Bush, his wife,
nor any of his senior staff bothered to attend the function. Former
Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill – a lame duck, as he has resigned
– did attend, and he weasel-worded that Bush would not attend a
country-specific function.

This is nonsense, because Hindus are in at least a hundred countries
around the world: Hinduism is not a country-specific religion. In
reality, in a stinging reminder of the relative importance of Hindus,
Bush did attend, just a few hours later, a Muslim iftar party. Bush is
afraid of Muslims, he is not worried about Hindus.

I actually understand Bush's reasons quite well. As Christian
fundamentalists, he and his pals necessarily despise Hindus. They
despise Muslims too, but they are afraid of Muslims, so they pay at
least lip-service to Islam. Besides, many of his cohorts, oil men,
have some connection to Saudi oil and money. But the Hindus, they can
be discarded like used tissue paper. Money talks, of course. Oil talks
even louder.

Kindly note that 'Bobby' Jindal, the Great Brown Hope, also did not
attend the Diwali function at the White House. So much for the
expectation that Jindal was going to do a lot for India. No, as a
fiery converted Christian, Jindal has no interest in the 'heathen'
religion of his ancestors, or by extension, in India's affairs. Why am
I not in the least bit surprised? Converts are the worst, as they have
to prove their conversion correct.

It has become the role of Hindus to be the under-class, the
water-carriers and wood-cutters for Christians and Muslims. Thus the
Christian fundamentalists will happily take money from rich
Hindu-Americans, but there is no quid pro quo. The Hindu-American
doctors and engineers who give their money are being taken for a ride.

In India, there is circumstantial evidence: whenever I am in Kerala, I
read Malayalam newspapers, and I have noticed a trend, and admittedly
this is only a sample. A number of soldiers from Kerala have been
killed in battle or terrorist attacks, and every single one of them I
can remember has been a Hindu. Not one Muslim or Christian that I have
noticed, over several years. What does this mean? Only Hindus are poor
enough to need to take up dangerous work like in the military, for
lack of better opportunities. So they die, defending the Muslims and
Christians, who get a free ride.

Similarly, when T R Baalu announced at a Christian fundamentalist
meeting (this must have thrilled them no end) that he was ashamed to
have been born Hindu, the UPA worthies did not scold him for being an
obnoxious person. In a truly secular state, no religion should be
insulted by a government official. But I forgot, India is only a
'secular' state, which means it is an anti-Hindu State. See my earlier
column on the perversion of secularism.

Wait, there is more. Instead of pronouncing a death threat to Baalu,
some Hindus proceeded to peacefully excommunicate him. Now the State
swung into motion, and arrested the would-be excommunicators! See
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/july182004/n6.asp Logically,
if a person is ashamed of being part of a group, doesn't that group
have the right to exclude him? I guess not, if they are Hindus: they
must swallow the insult silently.

But other religions have the right to do so. For instance, when some
Muslims pronounced a fatwa on Salman Rushdie and asked for his head, I
don't remember the State arresting them. Similarly, I suspect that
when Malayalam writer Ponkunnam Varkey was expelled from the Catholic
church, the police did not show up and demand that he be reinstated.
Naturally, I guess, because only Hindus are subject to being
controlled by the State. Others are above the law.

The DMK openly exulted at the arrest of the Sankaracharya. The DMK
have specialized in anti-Hindu polemic partly because the entire
edifice of their belief, of some sui generis 'Dravidian' culture, is
complete hogwash. It was manufactured by a Christian priest, one
Bishop Caldwell, with the intent of divide-and-rule. In reality, Tamil
culture is Indic: Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, just the same as the culture
in other parts of the country.

If you look at the motives for the arrest of the Sankaracharya, the
question arises: who benefits? Clearly, the DMK, they who claim to be
'rationalists' and 'anti-religion' but even their lionized leader EV
Ramaswamy Naicker was too scared to utter a word against Muslim or
Christian practices: which means they are basically an anti-Hindu
entity because they can get away with it.

My immediate suspicion is that this is political payback for a couple
of things: one, what Jayalalitha did to Karunanidhi, two, what
Subramaniam Swamy is suggesting these days.

First, Jayalalitha had Karunanidhi arrested on a holiday, so that
there would no chance to apply for bail; and so now the Sankaracharya
is arrested on a major holiday. Jayalalitha, being a Tamil Brahmin,
would presumably be hurt because the Kanchi Matham is a Tamil Brahmin
stronghold, which the DMK has a special aversion to. Karunanidhi's
statement on November 11th about the prime suspect in the Raman murder
case being at large gives credence to this argument
http://www.sulekha.com/news/nhc.aspx?cid=407194

Second, Subramaniam Swamy has been going around with a fierce campaign
against Sonia Gandhi. For instance, he was scheduled to speak in
Chicago on November 7th on the topic of "Sonia Gandhi: A National
Security Threat to India". What better payback to Swamy than to attack
his power base, the Tamil Brahmins? It is a well-known secret that
Swamy gains much of his support and information from the Tamil Brahmin
bureaucracy at the center.

There is a third possibility: that this is a part of the ongoing
Christian missionary efforts to paint revered Hindu religious leaders
in a bad light. Every Hindu leader is accused of some wrong-doing,
without proof. They trust that by their favorite tactic of 'truth by
repeated assertion' some of it will stick (as they have demonstrated
in the mythology of the arrival of Thomas the Apostle in India, a
fabrication which is now widely believed).

I keep getting mail from some (white Christian?) Australian nut-case
about how he has evidence that the Sai Baba molested children, but the
evidence never materializes. Compare this to the hundreds, if not
thousands, of Catholic priests accused and many formally convicted in
court of large-scale pedophilia across several continents. And there
are reports from the Vatican itself of sexual slavery of, and murders
of, nuns.

Now that Christians are in power in India – just look at the cabal
around Sonia Gandhi – and the Bushies have returned to power, there
will be renewed enthusiasm from the conversion mavens of the Joshua
Project and the 10/40 Project to target Hindus. This might well be the
reason for this egregious attack on the Sankaracharya.

Whatever the reason, the UPA government should have handled this
affair with a little more sensitivity and finesse. There was really no
reason to hound the Sankaracharya, chase him around the countryside,
and arrest him with such theatrics, as though he were going to jump
bail and fly out of the country. There was no reason to humiliate this
very spiritual person. Instead, they could have put the Sankaracharya
under house arrest at the Kanchi Matham if needed. But I guess the
intention was indeed to humiliate.

Why on earth would the Sankaracharya order the murder of an
accountant? That seems to completely defy logic. The Sankaracharyas
live totally spartan lives and have no need for money. Besides, even
assuming somebody in the Kanchi Matham wanted to sweep things under
the carpet, it would have been so much easier to just bribe somebody,
rather than go out and murder someone, especially murdering them in a
temple and desecrating the place.

The sentiments of millions of Hindus do not matter to the Congress,
just as the sentiments of Sikhs didn't when they went on a murderous
rampage in 1984, nor when they appointed alleged gang-leader Jagdish
Tytler as a minister.

And where is the principal 'Hindu nationalist' party who should speak
up? In complete disarray.

The Congress is once again demonstrating that they are a party only
for Muslims and Christians. The foolish Hindus who voted for them
deserve what they get, I suppose.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

As Mark Twain would have said, "the rumors of my death areexaggerated". I don't think India's advantages are going to go awayall that quickly. If demand declines, wages will fall, too: there isno reason salaries will continue to climb at 15%. Besides, the USdollar plummeting will affect not only India but also all othercompeting nations.

Stephen Cohen has staked out turf for himself as a leading 'SouthAsia' expert. In fact, if probed, it turns out that he is alarminglyignorant about 'South Asia', so it is hard to take his pronouncementsvery seriously. He seems to be one of the State Department's favoriteweatherwanes: they probably use him to send out trial balloons withtheir views on the world. For instance, in this book, he once againreiterates (as he has done many times) that the Pakistanis are notsuch a bad lot, after all. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. They are 'ourboys'. Or to use a more pungent description employed by Tariq Ali,they are the 'international condom', to be used and then flushed downthe toilet by the Americans.

Only, it is not quite working out that way. The Pakistanis are theones using the Americans, it turns out. They must be blown away by theAmerican largesse that came their way after 9/11, which of course theyplanned and provided logistic and monetary support for. Like Christmasin July, what?

And the Americans showed that they would wink at Pakistani 'mischief',after the battle for Kunduz in Afghanistan, when they allowed Pakistanto airlift a large number of their senior army officers (also known asthe Taliban -- I mean, imagine 'Islamic seminary students' flyingfighter planes and driving tanks) to safety, away from the advancingNorthern Alliance.

Thus, Pakistan is in the catbird seat. Kill 3,000 Americans on 9/11,get $3 billion in arms, weapons and so forth, just by dangling theoccasional disposable Al Quaeda person before them, while Osama binLaden lives in comfort in PoK.

I also have to wonder which planet Pervez Hoodbhoy lives on: "Pakistanhas had no state-sponsored genocides unlike others I could name", sayshe. Perhaps he has heard of a small war in 1971 in a place called EastPakistan? No wonder Hoodbhoy, Kuldip Nayyar, and all the PIPFPD peopleget along so well: they are really good at selective amnesia and arebig-time hypocrites. I suppose killing 3 million Bengalis didn'tcount, as they were people with inferior genes compared to the robustPunjabis, and also quite a few of them were Hindus. Of course theytried to improve the Bengali gene pool through a sustained campaign ofrape, very kind of them.

What goddamn cant! And Foreign Affairs, no doubt influenced by FaridZakaria, prints this blood-libel!

When he founded Pakistan in 1947, Muhammad Ali Jinnah-an impeccablydressed Westernized Muslim with Victorian manners and a secularoutlook-promised the subcontinent's Muslims that they would finally beable to fulfill their cultural and civilizational destiny. Althoughthe new nation arose from a bloodbath of ethnic cleansing andsectarian violence, and its fundamental premise was that Hindus andMuslims could never live together, its early years nevertheless heldsome promise of a liberal, relatively secular polity. But with time,Jinnah's Pakistan has grown weaker, more authoritarian, andincreasingly theocratic. Now set to become the world's fourth mostpopulous nation, it is all of several things: a client state of theUnited States yet deeply resentful of it; a breeding ground for jihadand al Qaeda as well as a key U.S. ally in the fight againstinternational terrorism; an economy and society run for the benefit ofPakistan's warrior class, yet with a relatively free and feisty press;a country where education and science refuse to flourish but which isnevertheless a declared nuclear power; and an inward-looking societythat is manifestly intolerant of minorities but that has never seenanything like the state-organized pogroms of India, Afghanistan, Iran,or China.

In The Idea of Pakistan, Stephen Philip Cohen sets out to understandthis enigma of modern history. Cohen is the United States' leadinganalyst of South Asia, and this authoritative work of broad scope andmeticulous research will surely become required reading on Pakistan.It also provides a view from the heart of the American empire, ananalysis of how Washington can best advance its interests in SouthAsia. Cohen's facts are indisputable, his logic cold and clear, andhis omissions deliberate and meaningful.

The United States' global primacy depends in large part on its abilityto develop new technologies and industries faster than anyone else.For the last five decades, U.S. scientific innovation andtechnological entrepreneurship have ensured the country's economicprosperity and military power. It was Americans who invented andcommercialized the semiconductor, the personal computer, and theInternet; other countries merely followed the U.S. lead.

Today, however, this technological edge-so long taken for granted-maybe slipping, and the most serious challenge is coming from Asia.Through competitive tax policies, increased investment in research anddevelopment (R&D), and preferential policies for science andtechnology (S&T) personnel, Asian governments are improving thequality of their science and ensuring the exploitation of futureinnovations. The percentage of patents issued to and science journalarticles published by scientists in China, Singapore, South Korea, andTaiwan is rising. Indian companies are quickly becoming thesecond-largest producers of application services in the world,developing, supplying, and managing database and other types ofsoftware for clients around the world. South Korea has rapidly eatenaway at the U.S. advantage in the manufacture of computer chips andtelecommunications software. And even China has made impressive gainsin advanced technologies such as lasers, biotechnology, and advancedmaterials used in semiconductors, aerospace, and many other types ofmanufacturing.

Although the United States' technical dominance remains solid, theglobalization of research and development is exerting considerablepressures on the American system. Indeed, as the United States islearning, globalization cuts both ways: it is both a potent catalystof U.S. technological innovation and a significant threat to it. TheUnited States will never be able to prevent rivals from developing newtechnologies; it can remain dominant only by continuing to innovatefaster than everyone else. But this won't be easy; to keep itsprivileged position in the world, the United States must get better atfostering technological entrepreneurship at home.

PENNYWISE

At the moment, it would be premature to declare a crisis in the UnitedStates' scientific or technological competitiveness. The United Statesis still the envy of the world for reasons ranging from its ability tofund basic scientific research to the speed with which its companiescommercialize new breakthroughs.

This year, total U.S. expenditures on R&D are expected to top $290billion-more than twice the total for Japan, the next biggest spender.In 2002, the U.S. R&D total exceeded that of Canada, France, Germany,Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom combined (although the UnitedStates trailed Finland, Iceland, Japan, South Korea, and Sweden in theratio of R&D to GDP). And although scholars from other parts of theworld may write relatively more science and engineering papers thanAmericans do, U.S. research continues to be cited the most.

The United States also leads the major global technology markets,holding commanding market shares in aerospace, scientific instruments,computers and office machinery, and communications instruments. U.S.information and communications technology producers lead almost everysector. And for the last two decades, U.S. firms have been the topproviders of high-technology services, accounting for about one-thirdof the world's total.

These strengths, however, should not obscure the existence of newthreats to the long-term health of science and innovation in theUnited States. A record $422 billion budget deficit, for example, mayundermine future government support for R&D. Recent shifts in federalspending will leave basic research-that driven by scientific curiosityrather than specific commercial applications-underfunded, deprivingthe economy of the building blocks of future innovation. Althoughfederal expenditures on R&D are expected to reach $132 billion infiscal year 2005 and $137.5 billion in 2009, new spending will beconcentrated in the fields of defense, homeland security, and thespace program. Funding for all other R&D programs, meanwhile, willremain flat this year and decline in real terms over the next fiveyears.

In July, Congress approved a record-breaking $70.3 billion for R&D forthe Defense Department in 2005, a 7.1 percent increase from last yearand more than the Pentagon had asked for (in fact, the department'stop brass had asked to cut R&D spending). Such largesse makes itlikely that the Pentagon will be able to continue innovation in thenear term. Its longer-term prospects, however, are more worrying.According to five-year projections by the American Association for theAdvancement of Science, the Defense Department will focus more andmore on weapons development while neglecting basic and appliedresearch.

Privately funded industrial R&D, meanwhile-which accounts for over 60percent of the U.S. total-is also starting to slip as a result of thecurrent economic slowdown. Private industry cut R&D spending by 1.7percent in 2001, 4.5 percent in 2002, and 0.7 percent in 2003. Thisyear, R&D spending is expected to increase-but by less than onepercent, which is less than the inflation rate. Furthermore, with lessthan 10 percent of its R&D spending dedicated to basic research,industry will not be able to fill in the gaps created by thegovernment's shift of funding to defense and homeland security-relatedresearch.

These funding decreases may be exacerbated by a coming labor shortage.The number of Americans pursuing advanced degrees in the sciences andengineering is declining, and university science and engineeringprograms are growing more dependent on foreign-born talent.Thirty-eight percent of the nation's scientists and engineers withdoctorates were born outside the country. And of the Ph.D.'s inscience and engineering awarded to foreign students in the UnitedStates from 1985 to 2000, more than half went to students from China,India, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Such dependence on foreign talent could become a critical weakness forthe United States in the future, especially as foreign applications toU.S. science and engineering graduate programs decline. With boomingeconomies and improving educational opportunities in their countries,staying at home is an increasingly attractive option for Chinese andIndian scientists. In addition, visa restrictions put in place afterthe terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have created new barriersfor foreign students trying to enter the United States. Surveysconducted by the Association of American Universities, the AmericanCouncil on Education, and other education groups have blamedrepetitive security checks, inefficient visa-renewal processes, and alack of transparency for significant drops in applications to U.S.graduate programs this year.

ENGINEERING BIOSYSTEMS

The real test for the United States' future will be whether it canmaintain and improve its environment for innovation. For the last 30years, U.S. companies have led in the invention of new products whileAsian firms have played a secondary role, lowering the costs tomanufacture U.S. inventions. But Asian firms have begun to challengethat division of labor and are no longer content simply to follow.

This shift has resulted in part from a change in the way U.S.companies work. During the 1980s and 1990s, U.S. technology producersstarted collaborating more with colleagues around the world. Privateindustry found that R&D had become too costly and risky for a singlelab at a large company to undertake alone. Instead, cutting-edgecompanies began to cooperate with a wide network of other firms,universities, and industry-government consortia to develop newproducts. Such activity flourished in places such as Silicon Valley,the Route 128 corridor in Boston, and in Austin, Texas-hothouses ofinnovation where scientists, venture capitalists, and technologymanagers meet and share information. The result has been a shift inthe locus of innovation from individual corporate labs to networks oftechnology firms, capital markets, and research universities.

Cheaper communications technologies have also allowed U.S. companiesto operate more globally, dividing production into discrete functions,contracting out to producers in different countries, and transferringtechnological know-how to foreign partners. Contrary to conventionalwisdom, not just labor-intensive manufacturing is being movedoffshore; Microsoft, Intel, Bell Labs, Motorola, and other firmsincreasingly perform advanced research abroad.

The attraction of emerging technology clusters in places such asShanghai, China, Bangalore, India, and Hsinchu, Taiwan, was at firstbased on their cheap labor supply. But as local technology companieshave developed, new research institutes have been founded, andscientists and engineers from such countries have returned home aftertraining and working in the United States, these hubs have startedsupporting innovation of their own. Craig Barrett of Intel has saidthat the Chinese are now "capable of doing any engineering, anysoftware job, any managerial job that people in the United States arecapable of." And Microsoft has reportedly contracted with the Indiancompanies Infosys and Satyam not only to do simple software coding,but also to provide highly skilled software architects.

No longer content to dominate labor-intensive manufacturing, Asiangovernments are also actively promoting technological innovation.Japan and South Korea each currently spend 3 percent of GDP on R&D(compared to 2.7 percent in the United States) and Beijing is tryingto reach an R&D spending target of 1.5 percent of GDP in 2005 (up from0.6 percent in 1996). Asian countries are also trying to take the leadin three areas that are likely to generate the next wave ofinnovation: biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information technology.Governments have increased their support for all three areas, and Asianow spends as much as the United States and Europe combined onnanotechnology. South Korea, China, and Japan have all establishednational offices to coordinate research and are spending significantprivate and public resources on new developments.

In addition to increasing science and R&D budgets, China, India, SouthKorea, and Taiwan are shifting from top-down, state-directedtechnology policies to more flexible, market-oriented approaches thatfoster innovation and entrepreneurship. Regional governments are usingtax, education, and fiscal policies to create clusters of domesticstart-ups. They are encouraging students, scientists, and technologymanagers to return from Silicon Valley to set up their own companiesin Shanghai or Bangalore. And by offering tax holidays as well aspriority access to water, land, and electricity, they are attractinghigh-tech companies from the United States, Europe, and Japan.

All of these changes in Asia highlight one of the paradoxical outcomesof globalization: geography has become both less and more important toinnovation. Technology firms can now locate anywhere. Production thatwas once tied to a specific place can be picked up and moved to otherparts of the world. But to remain competitive, technology companiesneed knowledge-and information-rich regions; firms are likely to bedrawn to technology hubs that provide the concentration of ideas,talent, and capital needed for future innovation. Globalization hastherefore not eliminated geography as a concern, but rather increasedthe leverage of those regions that can successfully assemble thecomponents of innovation.

RAPID RESPONSE

Before rushing to address these challenges, Washington shouldunderstand the limits of the data used to describe S&T trends.Predictions of labor shortages in the sciences have been frequentlywrong before, graduate school enrollment can change from year to year,and other data can counterbalance bad news. Although the number ofPh.D. students coming to the United States has dropped, for example,the proportion of those choosing to remain after their studies hasincreased substantially. Moreover, a bachelor's degree may now be morerelevant to innovation than before, and the number of Americanstudents getting such degrees in science and engineering has increasedover the last decade.

Policymakers should therefore be careful not to focus too much on anyparticular statistic. Dollars spent on R&D or research paperspublished are easy to measure, but innovation involves many otherfactors. The speed at which new technologies such as broadband areadopted and diffused, the flexibility of labor markets, and the easewith which new companies can enter and exit technology markets allaffect the ability of innovators to flourish in a particulareconomy-yet such factors usually fall outside the parameters oftraditional S&T policy.

The double-edged phenomenon of globalization, which can bothstrengthen U.S. technology companies and threaten the innovationsystem, makes the task of supporting innovation through policy muchmore difficult. Proximity to consumers gives firms a better sense ofpotential new markets and allows them to rapidly respond to changingcustomer demands. Yet a move overseas, although it might seem good forshareholders, could also destabilize the complex interactions betweenfirms and universities that drive technological discovery in theUnited States. Removing any one element from a technology cluster candiminish its ability to generate new ideas. Send manufacturing jobs toAsia and you risk exporting important components of your innovationinfrastructure.

The United States cannot and should not prevent the emergence of newtechnology clusters in Asia. Instead, it should prepare to develop andabsorb new technologies as they emerge elsewhere. The ability to makegood use of diverse ideas and systems remains one of the UnitedStates' most important comparative advantages, and U.S. companies mustmake sure that good ideas, no matter where they are developed, arebrought to market in the United States first.

U.S. private industry may want to follow the example of the nation'sarmed forces. Washington's military dominance no longer depends on itdenying others access to critical technologies. Many of the sensorsthat the U.S. military now uses to detect ships or aircraft beyondvisual range or to provide targeting information are off-the-shelfitems produced by companies around the world. Unable to prevent thespread of these technologies to potential enemies, the United Stateshas maintained its military superiority by making sure it is betterthan any other country at using such tools, integrating sensor input,and creating sensor networks. In the commercial sphere, U.S. firmsshould similarly strive to maintain their advantage by adopting andintegrating new technologies more rapidly than their competitors.

Maintaining such speed will require that U.S. companies have apresence in Asian markets to track, develop, and invest in the mostpromising new ideas. Washington must continue to pressure its tradingpartners-especially Beijing-to meet the terms of current tradeagreements and allow such access. The United States must also promotevoluntary and open technology standards. In March 2004, the Bushadministration protested regulations requiring all wireless imports toChina to contain data-encryption technology produced only by Chinesecompanies. Beijing has since withdrawn the regulations, but givenChina's interest in developing new technology standards, the UnitedStates should watch for future attempts of a similar nature.

At home, Washington should not strive to identify the next big thing.Rather, policymakers should ensure that the United States remains themost dynamic innovation system. Funding for science and education mustbe maintained. Although it might be tempting to shrink the budgetdeficit by reducing discretionary funding for the sciences, this wouldweaken one of the pillars of the country's future economic andtechnological health. Money for basic research, especially in thephysical sciences and engineering, and support for the NationalScience Foundation should therefore be maintained at current levels orincreased.

Of equal importance, policymakers must also reinforce the UnitedStates' entrepreneurial climate, its greatest asset. The buildingblocks of American innovation-flexible capital and labor markets,transparent government regulation, and a business environment thatrewards risk-need to be strengthened. Making the R&D tax creditpermanent and expanding it to include more types of collaborativeresearch, for example, would help provide incentives for innovation inas many technological sectors as possible.

With innovative capacity rapidly spreading across the Pacific, theUnited States cannot simply assume that it will remain the epicenterof scientific research and technological innovation. Instead, itshould meet the challenge from Asia head-on. The United States mustactively engage with new centers of innovation and prepare itself tointegrate rapidly and build on new ideas emerging in China, India, andSouth Korea. Above all, it must not assume that future innovation willoccur automatically. Only through renewed attention to sciencefunding, educational reform, the health of labor and capital markets,and the vitality of the business environment can the United Statesmaintain its edge-and the most innovative economy in the world.

Richard Haas is supposedly a 'South Asia' expert and was influential in Bush I.

Note that India doesn't figure in the 'major powers', which are China and Russia.

India does figure in the 'big powers', which are China, Russia, India and Japan. Since Henry Kissinger has the same list, this must now be the default option.

But then immediately after that, Haas goes into India-Pakistan-equal-equal.

Therefore, Bush II is going to be 'South Asia' oriented: Musharraf as Major Non Nato Ally, India as a country to keep down. The very term 'South Asia' is intended to inflate Pakistan's importance and reduce India's. Otherwise, the area should naturally be called the Indian subcontinent.

Note that among the nine major items Haas suggests, there is nothing of great importance for India. For instance:

Control of proliferation of nuclear weapons by China and Pakistan

Managing Afghanistan so that the Pakistani Army (also known as the Taliban) do not infiltrate the country again

Human rights issues in Tibet

The Maoist inflitration into Nepal (and by extension into India via the PWG)

Islamist terrorism in Bangladesh

India, as usual, has to fight its own battles.

The one good thing about Bush is that we will not have to listen to lectures from East-coast pundits about Atlanticism and proliferation.

Thursday, November 04, 2004

If these guys think Manmohan and co are going to improve the business environment, they must be smoking some high-quality stuff. Yeah, especially with the Marxist monkey on their shoulders. I guess all the propaganda about Manmohan being the 'father' of liberalization has made the difference. (Like Nehru is the 'uncle' to all children. In fact he hated children.) And of course there's P Chidambaram who successfully brought down the rate of growth to the Nehruvian Rate of Growth of 3% in his last stint.

I was most entertained to see the following from Chidambaram, though:

UPA finance minister P. Chidambaram allows that Nehruism wrought havoc on India. A report in the Asian Age dated 8th September 2004 (“PC blames Nehru”) appears to suggest the unthinkable, that Nehruvian Stalinism has been an economic crime against humanity: an idea for which I regularly get abused by the Old Left and their running-dogs. Amazing that Chidambaram should say this publicly, considering that he is beholden to the Dynasty for his job.

Anyway Chidambaram pulled no punches, it appears, and I quote:

“Colossal damage was done in these 30 years [the first 30 years post-independence when Nehruvian Stalinism ruled unchallenged – Ed.] as the heavy hand of state intervention destroyed all sense of responsibility and private enterprise, specially among the rural people.”

“The disappearance of individual enterprise resulted in the people losing their sense of responsibility and pride in attending to development work in their villages. They, instead, look for State intervention at all levels, even desilting a village pond. The effect of this attitude of alienation, particularly among the rural people, contributed significantly to Indian poverty as a majority of its billion people lived in villages.”

“We paid a heavy price for this. It will take 200 years to wipe out poverty.”

Amen to that. He was of course referring to the 2-3% growth in GDP, the Nehruvian Rate of Growth. The result? 250 million Indians condemned to remain below the poverty line: this is otherwise known as the Nehruvian Penalty.

> 'Save Tenzin Delek Rinpoche'
> (Bombay | November 5-9, 2004)
>
> Tenzin Delek Rinpoche (53), an influential Buddhist teacher was arrested
> on April 7, 2002, and charged with involvement in a series of bombings. On
> December 2, 2002, he was found guilty of "inciting separatism, committing
> crimes of explosions, and illegal possession of guns and ammunition". He
> was not accorded due process because of the denial of representation by
> independent lawyers at his trial and reliance on his conviction being
> reliant on a confession by his relative and co-defendant Lobsang Dhondup
> that was reportedly given during torture. Despite international outcry,
> Tenzin Delek Rinpoche's death sentence was upheld. Tenzin Delek Rinpoche
> is being imprisoned in Chuandong prison, a high security prison in Sichuan
> Province. Chinese government may execute him at any time this December.
>
> Probably you can help save Tenzin Delek Rinpoche from execution by
> participating in campaigns in India. We request your participation in the
> 'Save Tenzin Delek Rinpoche Campaign' Tibetan Youth Congress is planning
> in Bombay in association with Friends of Tibet (India). To know more or to
> get involved with the campaign scheduled in Bombay from November 5-9,
> 2004, call: Aspi Mistry: (0) 9820491350 / Jigme Gadong: (0) 9819588690 /
> Tenzin Tsundue: (0) 9819252229 / Email: tyc@vsnl.com /
> support@friendsoftibet.org.
>
> ...............
> Friends of Tibet (INDIA)
> PO Box 16674, Bombay 400050
> Email: support@friendsoftibet.org
> Web: www.friendsoftibet.org
> ...............

Interesting that he is willing (now) to treat India as more or less on par with China, Russia and Japan. And note that he did not bring in the usual India-Pakistan-equal-equal nonsense. If this indicates a new realism in US State Dept thinking, I'd be quite amazed. After all, K has been the grey eminence advising State all these years, come Republican or Democratic administrations.

I also liked his characterization of Kerry as an 'Atlanticist'. I have been saying for some time that NATO-centrism is a major error people have been making. The Economist is the official mouthpiece of this view. Good to have a name for it: Atlanticism.

In the century of the Pacific, Atlanticists are going to be the creatures that time forgot.

my sincere condolences about harinder and my apologies for having assumed you were not victimized by chinese racism (as a white person, you normally wouldn't be). no, i did not know about harinder's tragic death due to racism. i will read up on the various items brought up by google. i will also read your article on the global hierarchy of race, and i do believe this is an important topic. i would like to have a dialog with you on this topic: there is currently a debate in indian circles about 'white studies' and the all-too-pervasive eagerness of indians, like other immigrants, to be 'almost white' in the us (and presumably in the uk).

thank you for your email. i can assure you that i am not starry-eyed about china, least of all about chinese racism. indeed, i think this will pose a profound problem for the world and already does - and has done - for east asia. my wife - who was indian-malaysian - died in a hong kong hospital in 2000 at the age of 33, the victim of chinese racism. if you don't know about this case, then you should do because it because it received international coverage, including in south asia. it led to a campaign in hong kong for anti-racist legislation which eventually forced the hk govt to concede and announce that for the first time it would introduce such legislation. my wife's name is harinder veriah. if you go onto google and put her name into advanced search you will find lots and lots of material. you well also be interested in an article i wrote in the guardian in sept last year entitled the global hierarchy of race. you can find it on the guardian website by putting my name into archive search. this covers many of these issues.

This is an interesting perspective and I agree with the premise that the nation-state's obituary is a little premature.

While it is true that power is inexorably shifting away from the European Union -- partly a function of aging and partly of internal dissent -- Martin Jacques does go a little ga-ga about China. I suppose this is not suprising considering that the Guardian is a left-wing paper, and China is about the only Old Left success story there is these days.

But I take exception to the quote from Jared Diamond that Jacques nods approvingly to. Diamond, although he does make a lot of good points in "Guns, Germs and Steel", tends to be irritatingly focused on the (sometimes imagined) glories of South-east Asia (esp. Papua New Guinea) and China. I think he is simply ignorant of Indian culture and civilization. For instance, according to him Indian languages are derived from Sino-Tibetan, which is a fairly absurd proposition. Unlike the other five or six large (in population) nations, India has a distinct, unbroken cultural heritage going back at least 5,000 years. This is despite the best efforts of Muslim and Christian imperialists.

In contrast, China is a Han tyranny, a monoculture that is not sustainable in the long run: for instance, look at the riots last week where Hui Muslims revolted and 150 people were killed. If you applaud China's cohesiveness and attribute it to the Han majority, then you are pretty close to endorsing racism (you have to be a non-yellow Asian and live in Singapore or Hong Kong or Shanghai to understand Chinese racism: they are as racist and color-conscious as they accuse the Japanese of being). There seems to be an imperial-hangover tendency on the side of the Old Left to admire China's successful and brutal colonialism: sort of like, sigh, in the good old days, we used to do this too!

Besides, China's cultural continuity has been decisively broken by the Marxists. The only thing that remains from the olden days is a rather alarming sense of imperialism: a new 'manifest destiny' if you will. You see this in practice in colonial attacks on Tibet, the Spratlys, Mischief Reef, Senkaku Islands, and now the attempt to claim Korea as theirs. You folks in the West are deluding yourselves about China, just as some of you (Kim Philby leaps to mind) deluded yourselves about the Soviet Union. We Asians know the beast better. This is a brutal, totalitarian dictatorship, and "China's peaceful rise" is a smoke-screen.

I am copying Martin Jacques on this mail as well. Mr. Jacques, I am a columnist for rediff.com, India's largest web portal. My web page is www.rediff.com/news/srinivas.htm

Sunday, October 31, 2004

Just in time for the final push, here's a really good -- some might
say really scary -- analysis of what makes Dubya what he is. (Not that I think Kerry is all that wonderful, being a non-proliferation fundamentalist and being an East-coast NATO-type for whom the world begins and ends in Europe.)

The scary part is how the "reality-based community", that is to say,
normal people, have been sidelined in the pursuit of this holy
madness.

There is the story of the early Christian hero, Tertullian (or is it
Origen -- I can't remember, Subhash Kak refers to this in his
wonderful work 'The Wishing Tree') who said regarding the
contradictions in the Bible: "I believe, because it is absurd".

Bush and co. remind me of this.

And also about what George Bernard Shaw said, I paraphrase: "The
problem with the world is that the clever are unsure and those who are
sure are stupid"

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

I agree with his observations that the Congress/Left government islikely to cause growth to decline; this is supported by the ReserveBank's announcement on Oct 26th that it was downgrading GDP growthprojections for this fiscal year from 6.75% to 6.25%. the RBI alsoexpects inflation to go up. The Left does not want growth or povertyalleviation, because it feeds on poverty: if the poor got wealthier,what would the Left's raison d'etre be?

On the overall question of whether manufacturing is being pushed toohard and services are being ignored, there is good news and bad news.If the government doesn't think much of services, it will continue toleave that sector alone, that is the good news. Also the other bit ofgood news is that some manufacturing sectors have really startedlooking up: eg. auto/ancillaries, pharma, steel. The bad news is thatinfrastructure growth is being stymied: eg. this govt does not wantthe Golden Quadrilateral of national highways to come to fruition asit was the previous govt's idea. Also, FDI caps on aviation, power,ports, etc. are too low to attract enough players. The govt really hasto decontrol as it did successfully in mobile telephony (I think Indiais the fastest growing mobile telephony market with 100% annualgrowhth these days albeit from a small base).

Friday, October 22, 2004

Prof Sreedhara Menon is the best known historian in Kerala. Hisrefusal to toe the Marxist line in writing Kerala history has gottenhim into lots of trouble with them. This article appeared in theIndian Express I think on Sept 17th, with some points edited out.

I particularly liked it that he calls them as he sees them: "secularfundamentalists".

Rajeev

SAVARKAR

PATRIOT OR TRAITOR?

By PROF. A.SREEDHARA MENON

The outburst of the secular fundamentalist, Union Minister ManiShankar Aiyar, against Vir Savarkar and the removal of the plaqueinstalled in his name in the cellular jail in the Andamans which washis abode for over a decade under the British Raj have triggered acontroversy, generating a lot of heat. Normally, the initiative forsuch an action with political overtones should have come from theUnion Home Minister. It is strange that the Petroleum Minister hasarrogated to himself this right. Aiyar has since justified his actionas having been motivated by his desire to respect the memory ofMahatma Gandhi who had no such plaque in his honour in the cellularjail. Evidently, Aiyar has resorted to cthis argument as anafterthought to save himself and his Government from the embarrassmentcaused by the strong reactions from a section of the intelligentsiaand the political class. The existence or non-existence of a plaque inhonour of Gandhiji in the Andaman jail does not reduce or enhance thestature of his personality as the supreme leader of the IndianIndependence Movement. The Mahatma's place in history as the Father ofthe nation is assured and does not need any advocacy by Mani ShankaraAiyar and his ilk for the perpetuation of his legacy.

The removal of the plaque from Savarkar's cell in Andamanjail is an unpardonable act of meanness. It is heartening to note thatPrime Minister Man Mohan Singh, an academic par excellence whoaccording to his own confession has become a politician by accident,has distanced himself from Aiyar's stand and has conceded thatSavarkar was a patriot and freedom fighter. It is also significantthat Savarkar's acquittal in spite of his being an accused in theGandhi Murder Case was also stressed by the Prime Minister. It wouldbe pertinent in this context to recall Savarkar's role in the IndianFreedom struggle in the early phase of his career in historicalperspective, whatever might have been the nature of his activities inthe later years of his life.

The activities of Terrorist organizations comprised of militant Hinduyouth form an important chapter in the history of India's freedomstruggle. Bengal, Punjab and Maharashtra were in the forefront of thisTerrorist movement. The terrorists preached the cult of violence andfounded secret societies to encourage acts of individual terrorismagainst the oppressive British bureaucrats. In Bengal sprang up earlyin the twentieth century the Anuseelan Samithi and other terroristgroups with which were associated political activists like BipinChandra Pal, Pulin Das et al. Bhupendranath Dutta, the brother ofSwami Vivekannda was actively associated with a terrorist group. Thevenerable Aurobindo Ghosh himself advocated violence as a means ofpolitical action for the achievement of freedom from foreign bondageand was arrested for alleged complicity in the Muzzafarpur bomb case.Punjab had its chain of secret societies under the leadership of LalaHardayal, Ajit Singh, Rash Bihari Bose and others. Maharashtra becamethe cradle of militant Hindu nationalism and revolutionary activitiesstarted even in the closing years of the 19th century. LokamanyaTilak was a source of inspiration for the militant nationalists. Hedid not rule out resort to violence as a means of achieving 'Swaraj'He was held responsible for the murder of Mr. Rand the Collector ofPune and sent to jail after a sensational trial. The emergence ofSavarkar on the political scene of Maharashtra has to be seen in thebackground of the above developments and not in isolation.

Savarkar was the brain behind the terrorist movement in Maharashtra.He organized individual terrorist attacks on British officials. Hefounded in 1899 a terrorist group called Mithra Mela which became theprecursor of the more well knit and active terrorist group AbhinavaBharat founded by him in 1900. There was a branch of Abhinava Bharatin almost all educational institutions in the Bombay Presidency andterrorist outbreaks became a normal feature of political life. TheAbhinav Bharat proclaimed its goal as the establishment of a Republicof India, the princes having been considered as mere puppets.

Savarkar subsequently left for London where he continued hisanti-British activities. The India House founded by Syamji KrisnaVarma in 1905 was the rendezvous of the politically active Indianyouth in London. This body had become virtually defunct after itsfounder was exiled by the British authorities. In 1907 the leadershipof the India House was taken over a group of youngsters led bySavarkar. It was a member of this group Madanlal Dhingra whoassassinated the British bureaucrat Curson Wilyie in London in 1909and he was sent to the gallows by the British . During his stay inLondon Savarkar helped his compatriots in Maharashtra by supplyingarms for the fight against the British. Sumit Sarkar, the Leftisthistorian has recorded in his 'Modern India 1885 to 1947' that it wasthe pistols secretly sent by Savarkar from London that were used tokill the District Magistrate of Nasik in December 1909. Savarkar wasarrested by the British Police for transportation to India to be triedin the Nasik Conspiracy Case

On his way to India by ship Savarkar eluded the vigilance of theBritish Police and escaped through the toilet hole and swam acrossthe British Channel to France in a bold bid for freedom from Britishclutches. However, he was re-arrested, brought back to India andsentenced to a long term of rigorous imprisonment of which he spent 11years in the cellular jail in Andamans. During this period he had notonly to undergo hard labour but was also subjected to physicaltorture. After his release from the jail as a physical wreck hethought it wise to buy peace with the British in his own enlightenedself-interest and also in the national interest for service to thecountry in the manner he deemed fit. It should be noted that SriAurobindo who was active in politics just for five years from 1905 to1910 went into political oblivion and led the life of a yogi avoidingconfrontation with the British.

It was Savarkar's association with the Hindu Mahasabha and his non-participation in the freedom struggle under Gandhiji's leadership,particularly the Quit India Movementof 1942 that have been advanced asarguments to question his credentials as a patriot and freedomfighter. Many Indian revolutionaries and for that matter even Congressleaders like Subhas Chandra Bose disagreed with the Gandhian method ofthe political action and chose to follow their own paths to attain thecherished goal. Eminent national leaders like Pandit Madan MohanMalaviya, Lala Lajpat Rai, and Sir C.Sankaran Nair had their ownstrong reservations about the Congress policy of appeasement of themuslim minority and they gravitated to the Hindu Mahasabha. In fact,it was Madan Mohan Malaviya who took the initiative in forming theHindu Mahasabha in 1916 and he was assisted in this endeavour by LalaLajpat Rai and others. Sir C.Sankaran Nair presided over the specialsession of Hindu Mahasabha in 1931. All the three persons mentionedabove were Presidents of the IndianNationalCongress at some time orother and are still held in high esteem by the people for theircontribution to the National Movement. Should they be considered asunpatriotic for the simple reason that they were associated with theHindu Mahasabha for reasons of their own?

Savarkar became the President of the Hindu Mahasabha and declared atits Nagpur session (1939), "We Hindus are a nation by ourselves". Thiswas a natural response to the Muslim League demand for a separatestate based on the theory that the Muslims in India constituted aseparate nation and cannot be considered as unpatriotic in the contextof the times.

As for the Quit India movement, it should be noted that agroup of Congressmen led by C. Rajagopalachari and the IndianCommunists themselves opposed it. Rajaji's opposition to the movementdid not stand in the way of his becoming the first Indian Head ofState (Governor-General) in independent India. The Communists who werecondemned as unpatriotic betrayers by the Congress in 1942 have todaybecome patriotic enough to be considered as their bosom partners atthe centre. The great revolutionary of earlier days M.N.Roy extendedhis unconditional support to the British and even offered his servicesto Lord Wavell for appointment as a member of the Viceroy's ExecutiveCouncil. Dr. Ambedkar whom we revere today as the architect of theIndian Constitution was himself a member of the Viceroy's ExecutiveCouncil, which took the decision to arrest Gandhi in the wake of theQuit India Resolution of August 8, 1942. The nation honours hismemory today by observing his birthday April 14 as a national holiday!

Mention may also be made of the social revolutionary of Tamil NaduE.V.Ramaswamy Naicker who advocated the cause of the Dravidasthanseeking the support of the British in the pre-independence era. WouldMani Shankar Aiyar dare to say a word against him and step into thesoil of his own home state? R.Sankar and A.A.Rahim, two Congressleaders of Kerala, did not worry about the unity of India when theysupported the declaration of Travancore as an independent State bythe Maharaja in 1947. The former became the Congress Chief Minister ofKerala and the latter a Minister of State in the Central cabinet underthe Congress rule. In fact, several distinguished personalities likeS.Radhakrishnan, R.K.Shanmukham Chetty, N.Gopalaswamy Iyengar,V.T.Krishnamachari and others who were rewarded by the British with knighthood were not considered unqualified to hold top posts inindependent India.

Viewed in the above background it is incomprehensible why Savarkaralone should be considered a political untouchable and his memorypursued with vindictiveness by a group of self-styled intellectuals.Let me quote Sumit Sarkar again on the role of Savarkar and the RSSfrom his "Modern India" " Golwarkar's RSS kept strictly aloof from theAugust rebellion. Savarkar on 4 Sept. 1942 urged the Hindu Mahasabhamembers of the local bodies legislatures and services to stick totheir posts and continue to perform their regular duties and SyamaPrasad Mukherjee was actually a Bengal Minister while Midnapore wasbeing ruthlessly suppressed " In spite of all this Jawaharlal Nehrudid not consider Syama Prasad Mukherjee as unpatriotic enough to bedenied a place in his Cabinet.

The current controversy about Savarkar's role in the national movementis really unfortunate. His life and work have to be assessedobjectively in a broader historical perspective. It deserves specialmention that Savarkar was the first writer to present the Revolt of1857,'Sepoy Mutiny' in the eyes of the British, as an importantepisode in Indian freedom struggle. His work "The Indian War ofIndependence 1857" is a valuable contribution to the historicalliterature on the subject. What Jawaharlal Nehru has to say about thisin his "Discovery of India" written in 1945 is extracted below " Agreat deal of false and perverted history has been written about theRevolt and its suppression. What the Indians think about it seldomfinds its way to the printed page. Savarkar wrote the "History of theWar of Indian Independence" some thirty years ago, but his book waspromptly banned and is banned still". Of course it was published infree India. The fact is that when the balance is struck, whatever bethe fulminations of Mani Shankara Aiyar and his tribe, Savarkar hashis own legitimate place in the history of modern India as a patriotand freedom fighter. The removal of the plaque kept in his honour fromthe cellular jail in Andamans where he spent more than a decade of hislife is not only an insult to the memory of this valiant revolutionaryand freedom fighter but also an injustice to history Let us hope thatthe plaque will be restored to its original place and the soul ofSavarkar allowed to rest in peace. The earlier this is done, thebetter for the Government and the people of India.

(The writer is a former National Fellow of the ICHR and can be contacted on e-mail sreesaroj@satyam.net.in)